India’s BJP Elevates Modi to Top Party Panel Before Polls

Under state Chief Minister Narendra Modi, Gujarat has raised power generation capacity more than fivefold, while his government says it is the only state in India to have surplus electricity. Photographer: Sam Panthaky/AFP via Getty Images

April 1 (Bloomberg) -- India’s Bharatiya Janata Party
reappointed Narendra Modi to its highest decision making body
after a gap of six years, bolstering his stature amid jockeying
to lead the party into a general election due next year.

The party’s President Rajnath Singh yesterday inducted Modi
into the 12-member parliamentary board, according to the party’s
website, less than two weeks after a key ally of Prime Minister
Manmohan Singh’s ruling coalition walked out of his government.
While the BJP has yet to declare its prime ministerial
candidate, Modi’s third consecutive election victory in the
western state of Gujarat has made him a favorite among some BJP
members.

“It’s an elevation for Modi and a boost to his prime
ministerial ambition,” said Sanjay Kumar, an analyst at New
Delhi-based Centre for the Study of Developing Societies. “It’s
a signal that BJP is ready to give him an important role at the
national level.”

While Singh’s federal administration is struggling to turn
around an economy growing at its weakest pace in a decade,
Modi’s government in Gujarat has been hailed by investors
including Tata Group’s former chairman Ratan Tata, and
billionaire Mukesh Ambani, chairman of Reliance Industries Ltd.

Gujarat Growth

Gujarat’s economy has grown an annual 10.2 percent on
average over the last decade, against 7.8 percent for the
national economy. Under Modi, Gujarat has raised power
generation capacity more than fivefold, while his government
says it is the only state in India to have surplus electricity.
Its success in improving health and education indicators has
lagged behind other states.

Still, some of the BJP’s allies may oppose any move to
project Modi as a prime ministerial candidate on concern the
decision may antagonize Muslim voters who accuse him of failing
to stop riots in Gujarat in 2002 that targeted the community.

At least 1,000 people, most of them Muslims, died in the
brutal rioting as Hindu mobs rampaged through neighborhoods. The
violence was sparked by a blaze on a train in the state that
left 59 Hindu pilgrims dead, an inferno courts subsequently
found Muslims guilty of starting. Modi’s administration said it
did its best to maintain law and order during the rioting.

“Becoming a member of the parliamentary board is a
reflection of the stature of Modi within the party, but it in
no way indicates that he has crossed the bridge to be able to
become prime ministerial candidate,” said Sandeep Shastri, pro-vice chancellor of Jain University in Bangalore. “He will have
to become the rallying point to bring together people within the
BJP” and its allies.

Singh’s Congress party-led coalition is now as many as 44
seats short of a majority after the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam, a
southern Tamil party, pulled out last month, leaving him reliant
on support from two regional rivals.

The chief of one of them, the Samajwadi Party, told a
television channel about a week ago that he is ready to face
elections any time, and October would be ideal for his party.